Saturday, April 25, 2009

Waterboarding and the Spanish Inquisition

Dick Cheney doesn't seem to feel any pangs of remorse about waterboarding or other forms of "enhanced interrogation" used by the Bush Administration. Cheney thinks waterboarding is just fine when practiced by the "good guys" on the "bad guys."

According to him, waterboarding Khalid Sheik Mohammed produced information that prevented an attack on Los Angeles so it was just great to do it.We'll never know the truth of this assertion, but we do know that before Bush made it OK by special memo, waterboarding was definitely considered torture by the United States and is still considered torture by most of the world. We didn't think much of the Nazi's using it during World War II. But then, what are a few trivial details?Not since the days of the Spanish Inquisition has there been such a bruhaha about what does and does not constitute torture. Tomás de Torquemada would be proud. In his day the justification was that by getting a heretic to recant his heresies you were saving his soul, even if you were using thumbscrews to do it. Death was not a problem as long as the soul was saved.

It seems things have not changed much in the ensuing years. It's still a very slippery slope when one starts thinking that the end justifies the means and Pride still heads the list of the seven deadly sins. Perhaps there is still time for Dick Cheney to learn humility before he meets St. Peter at the pearly gates.illustration from:http://whgbetc.com/mind/inquisition.html